Checking the Cell Phone Towers

Besides doing research and teaching at the technical university, my boss also does some summer work checking the structural stability and condition of cell phone towers all over Eastern and Central Slovakia. The cell phone companies (Orange, T-mobile, and O2) pay the university to have my boss and his boss drive to the steel truss towers, take pictures of them, climb them, and check the instruments and stability of the structure. They are paid a flat rate for each tower that they check. The government requires that the towers be checked once every year or every other year depending on the size, height, and age. Only people who are certified can climb up the towers because it requires that you wear the correct harnesses and equipement.

I was allowed to come with my boss and his boss last Wednesday to the towers. My boss´s boss drove us to all of the towers. The dirt roads up the mountains near the towers were often too steep, rocky, or covered in foliage so we usually had a bit of a hike to get to the bases. We hiked in the woods, where there was hardly trails at all and surely I would never have found the towers, and in open fields where we could see for miles. Once at the towers I stayed on the ground taking pictures while they climbed to the top.

For lunch we stopped at a really nice lodge restaurant. I ordered a traditional Slovak meal: a dish like gnocci with cheese sauce, a large sausage, and Kofola (drink similar to Coke but only produced and sold in Slovakia)

The final tower was on a hill in a small town not far from Košice. A co-worker of my boss lives right next to this tower so he invited us to relax on his back patio and have a huge bowl of ice cream! It was delicious! It had watermelon on the bottom, nuts, big scopes of ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate bits on top. (It made me think of a Bonnie bowl :)